Silence, Sports Bras, And Wrestling Porn: Women in Televised Sports News and Highlights Shows

Whatever it Takes: Health Compromising Behaviors in Female Athletes

“…Although the muscular female physique has become chic, a highly muscled successful female athlete still is accused of using steroids (Davis & Delano, 1992) or being labeled lesbian (Krane, 2001). Female athletes receive far more media attention than in the past, yet their athletic accomplishments often are defl ected by sexualized photographs or trivializing commentary (Messner, Duncan, & Cooky, 2003). Scanning the sports section of any newspaper or viewing ESPN's SportsCenter clearly reveals that men's power sports dominate the media coverage.…”

Impact of spectator motivation on long-term sustainability for women’s basketball league

“…This makes it not only harder for women to be accepted as athletes, but women who fall outside feminine expectations struggle to be accurately represented. Messener, Duncan and Cooky (2003) argue that female athletes who are not represented as sexually appealing often get framed as a joke in the media. Consequently, this mindset diminishes the importance of the women's game.…”

‘Legends’ in ‘Lingerie’: Sexuality and Athleticism in the 2013 Legends Football League US Season

“…Instead, the question becomes media studies of female athletes, it has only rarely been utilised analytically in explaining empirical phenomena. This is perhaps the case given that the historical tendency for sports media to focus on female (hetero)sexuality accompanies a general silence regarding women's athletic capabilities; a phenomenon that has been well documented (e.g., Bernstein, 2002;Bruce, 1998;Cooky et al, 2013;Messner and Cooky, 2010;Messner et al, 2003;etc. ), rendering this redeemed femininity hypothesis more-or-less moot.…”